#1 R&B Song 1970: “Turn Back the Hands of Time,” Tyrone Davis
Born: Randy Cain III (the Deflfonics), 1945
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1956 The Joytones, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s first girl groups, recorded their single “Gee, What a Boy.” The 79-cent single is a $300 collectible today.
1960 Ben E. King, lead singer of the Drifters, was fired by his manager George Treadwell when he asked for a raise.
1960 Etta James reached the Hot 100 with “All I Could Do Was Cry,” (#33) her first of twenty-eight hits over the next ten years.
1970 The modest chart success of “Killer Joe” (#47 R&B, #74 pop) was the start of Quincy Jones’ illustrious career as he went on to have twenty-eight R&B and thirteen pop hits through 1999. His contributions as an arranger and producer for other artists such as Michael Jackson earned Jones a Grammy Living Legends Award in 1990.
1981 Rick James charted with his album Street Songs, reaching #3 pop an amazing #1 R&B for twenty weeks. Rick, who was the nephew of the Temptation’s bass, Melvin Franklin, originally formed the soul/rock band, the Myna Birds, whose membership included Neil Young (yep, that Neil Young of Crosby, Stills Nash & Young), Bruce Palmer, and Goldie McJohn. Palmer later joined Young in Buffalo Sprngfield and McJohn joined Steppenwolf. Street Songs stayed on the pop charts for seventy-four weeks and the R&B hit list for seventy-eight.
1989 Michael Jackson was nearly arrested today when he showed up at a Simi Valley, CA jewelry store wearing a wig, fake teeth, and a false moustache to do some innocent shopping. The security guard alerted police to the potential thief as the embarrassed star removed his disguise in order to satisfy three carloads of cops.
1991 B.B. King’s Memphis Blues Club (owned by the blues great) opened on Beale Street in Memphis, TN.
1991 Lenny Kravitz performed at the Apollo Theater in Manchester, England, at the beginning of an eight-date British tour.
1994 The Shirelles were inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Foundation with a Pioneer Award and performed “Dedicated to the One I Love” for the first time in seventeen years.
Ann
